Virginia Beach eyes revival near Tide light-rail station

It's 2011. A light-rail passenger gets off at the last Norfolk Tide stop to the east and gazes across Newtown Road into Virginia Beach.

What does she see? The drive-through side of a Rite Aid drugstore, a gymnastics school in a warehouse-like building and a sewage pump station. A block to the north, a BP and a Shell gas station vie for attention. Welcome to Virginia Beach!

"Not an attractive collection of land uses," Deputy City Manager Steve Herbert said.

Herbert and city planners are working on a long-term development plan partly designed to prevent this poor first impression of what they consider a crucial gateway, especially with light rail on the way to Norfolk and perhaps to the Beach.

The idea is to encourage redevelopment of a 450-acre triangular chunk of land between Newtown Road and Witchduck Road, bisected by Greenwich Road.

The city completed similar planning efforts for Burton Station, Pembroke and the Oceanfront, what officials call "strategic growth areas."

The 20-year vision for the "Newtown Strategic Growth Area" includes plans for office buildings, new streets and mixed-use high-density developments centered on the old Norfolk Southern rail line, which the city is buying for

$40 million for a possible light-rail project.

"Rather than having a shotgun approach, a comprehensive approach seems to be in everybody's interest," said Councilman Harry Diezel, who represents the study area. "From the standpoint of redevelopment, it's probably the thing to do. The objective is to bring people to where they work and live and reduce the need for automobile transportation."

City officials and landowners said the area, now a disjointed collection of businesses and vacant land, is ripe for redevelopment because of its centralized location near the intersection of Interstates 264 and 64. No neighborhoods are within the growth area.

Businesses in the area include the Chartway Federal Credit Union headquarters, The Virginian-Pilot production plant and the Hoffman Beverage Co., a beer distributor.

Under the most ambitious scenario, a mini-Town Center combining retail and residential uses would be built around a light-rail station located between Newtown and Witchduck roads.

"They have some good ideas, and some things are off base," said Brooks Johnson, whose company, Harmony Investments, owns 24 undeveloped acres in the area. Johnson wants to build an apartment building on one of his properties that the city has slated for an industrial building. "The question that always remains is how do you pay for it?"

To help guide development, the city is planning a $46 million to $50 million bridge over I-264 to connect Greenwich Road and Cleveland Street. That flyover would link the Newtown area more directly to Pembroke and Town Center. Greenwich Road would then dead-end at Witchduck Road. However, that project has not been funded.

Developer Eric Anderson, whose company, Lakeside Construction Corp., is on Greenwich Road, said he liked the city's plan, especially an idea for residential buildings near the intersection of Newtown and Princess Anne roads.

"That makes sense because Norfolk's train will be right there," he said.

Kirk Baldwin, Hoffman Beverage's vice president of operations, said the Princess Anne corridor and the Arrowhead Plaza Shopping Center could be better used.

"I don't think there's any question that that area is ripe for redevelopment," he said. "The Arrowhead area will be the first to blossom."

He said he didn't expect anything to happen fast.

"This is a 10- to 20-year time frame, but you have to start somewhere."

Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com